Month: July 2017

This is a work of fiction. All characters and incidents are fictional.

Chapter seven of the novel The Great Goddess

Please read from chapter one.

Sandhya was on her way to Thimor in the swan form to meet Sanuya, with the gold ring in her claws. At the same time in another part of the northern mountains, somewhere around half of a thousand miles east of the cave in which Sandhya meditated, a sister was praising her elder brother. “Oh great lord of fire, storm and water.” Yes, he was the lord of fire, storm and water, but only for Thimor. No one in Thimor or other parts of the kingdom knows how he got the right to be lord of those three elements in Thimor.

He carried fire in his bare right hand and a pot of water in his left and his breath was storm. The sister continued with the praising. “One who sustains with fire, storm and water when calm and destroys with same when angry.”

After she finished her honouring, he got up from his throne, both the fire and water pot vanished from his hands. He approached her and said. “My sister, the lady of marriage, I am very pleased by your words.”

Yes, she is the lady of marriage in Thimor, she decides who marries whom and informs the parents of both the bride and groom.

But in the case of Sanuya, from her childhood her parents said she would make a good wife of the son of that city’s administrator, she too was fixed on that. But on the previous day the lady of marriage had informed her parents about her future husband, it was not as she expected, her marriage is about to take place with the son of the admistrator of another city.

She decided to end her life by jumping off her balcony, she walked towards the balcony, at that moment she felt a sensation of peace.

——————————————–

Vihani was lying on her bed thinking about all the incidents that had taken place. She had asked Javanthi about the union of sun and moon, but Javanthi had told her that she will explain it the next day. She became interested in learning magic. Next morning she opened her door slightly and peeped out and watched her brother’s room door, it was still closed.
She waited, after sometime she heard the door open, it was her brother. She closed her door. She waited until her brother walk away, then she again opened the door, she saw her brother at the end of the corridor, near the main hall. She then walked into her brother’s room.

“Good Morning sister” She said.

“Hey, good morning Vihani, what brings you here so early?” Javanthi asked.

“The events of yesterday, I want to ask something from you, a favour.” Vihani replied.

“What is it dear?” asked Javanthi.

“Can you teach me magic? how did you learn it?” asked Vihani.

“Oh! it’s a very long story, I will tell you later.” Javanthi said.

“No! Tell me now, I can’t wait any longer” said Vihani.

Javanthi smiled and took her to the small table at a corner of the room. There were two chairs on either side of the table. Javanthi made Vihani sit on one of the chairs and she sat on the other.

“Fine dear, tell what you want to know?” asked Javanthi.

“How did you come into the world of magic?” asked Vihani.

“It happened when I was fifteen years old, a lady came to our castle, she said that she comes from a secret intellectual group called The Order of the Northern Mountains which was in a village at the base of the Northern Mountains. The village is not part of any kingdom. It was outside all the kingdoms. When I heard it, I was very much exited and wanted to know more about that village, the order and the lady herself.” said Javanthi.

“I went to her chamber and met her personally, she was only eight years older than me but after few days we were more or less like mother and daughter.

She started to teach me many things, magic is just one of them.” Saying this Javanthi removed a chain from her neck and placed it on the table between them. It was gold, It was a regular tetrahedron. All four side had a symbol, its vertical height was around half the length of Javanthi’s middle finger.

“What is it?” asked Vihani.

“It is the symbol of Sandhya, It was given to me by that lady and to her by Sandhya, those who are in the order learn directly from Sandhya. Sandhya appear and teach to each one of them in a different form. For this lady she appeared in a dark blue silk saree with the pallu spread over the length of the left hand and holding an orange flame on the palm of her right hand.” said Javanthi.

“Explain the symbol.” said Vihani.

“The space within the object is the Great Mystery, from it comes Sandhya, represented by the top vertice. From Sandhya comes the three set of creatures the serpent, the three beasts that is the horse, bison and boar and the crocodile represented by the three edges that comes down down from the top vertice.

The three base vertices represent the three human forms of Sandhya, the queen, the one who rules, below the edge of the three beasts, as the three beasts symbolize dominance.

The maid, the one who is ruled, below the edge of the crocodile, as the crocodile symbolize sorrow.

The lady, the one who neither rules nor is ruled or who sometimes rules and at other times is ruled, below the edge of the serpent, as the serpent symbolize balance and neutrality.

Three three represent the three states of nature, the electron, proton and neutron of atoms. The plus, minus and zero of number and all other things.

The three faces below the top vertice represent the lords and ladies that came from Sandhya, they are grouped into three based on their characteristics, based on the three edges. Each lord and lady has a mixture of characters of the two edges at either side of the face of which they belong.

The face at the base directly below the top vertice represent the dragon form.

The other three faces also had symbols of three birds, a swan on the face opposite to the queen’s vertice. A peacock opposite the lady’s vertice. A rooster opposite the maid’s vertice those represent the form Sandhya takes when meeting those three human forms.

The members of the order call the whole thing as the teacher and represents the form in which Sandhya comes to teach them.

“Tell me more about your magical journey” said Vihani.

“It is a journey of space, time and thought. We spent many hours together walking around the castle discussing all kinds of things. I will tell you all that little by little. I shall teach you as she did, let’s walk around the castle gardens discussing all sorts of things. I think this is enough for today.” said Javanthi.

Vihani got ready to leave, then she remembered something. “I want to know one more thing.” Vihani said.

“What is it my dear?” asked Javanthi.

“Sandhya told about the union of sun and moon, what does that mean?” asked Vihani.

“It means when the sun and moon are close to each other.” said Javanthi.

“You mean, new moon?” asked Vihani.

“Yes, but to be precise, not just any new moon but a solar eclipse. Where you can see the sun and moon embrace each other.” said Javanthi.

“That makes sense.” said Vihani and walked out of the room and into hers.

———————————————

Sanuya’s whole body started to shiver, her legs became weak and when she was about to collapse, Sandhya flew in, as the swan, went behind Sanuya and turned into her true form. She walked close to Sanuya from behind and held her by the waist from behind with her left hand. Just as Sandhya touched, Sanuya’s shivering stopped.

Sandhya brought her mouth close to Sanuya’s right ear and whispered. “Relax my dear, everything is fine.”

Sandhya took her hand from Sanuya’s waist and touched her shoulders with both hands and slowly turned her around. Sanuya looked into Sandhya’s eyes. Sandhya smiled. Sandhya held Sanuya’s left hand with her left hand and slowly raised it and slipped the ring into her left middle finger using her right hand.

This is a work of fiction. All characters and incidents are fictional.

Chapter six of the novel The Great Goddess

Please read from chapter one.

By noon, eight days later, a messenger from Javariya, met Avinya and delivered a message. It was from her father, king Rashor.

The message read as follows, “I heard about the new laws that you and king Valeth, has passed in your domain. I am very much disappointed by your actions. I wish you change your interest towards the lower classes and concentrate more on the royals and nobles. If not, sorry to say this my dear, I and my domain will have to support the proposal made by Srila, which I received, this morning by Tanor, our city administrator.

There was nothing surprising in this message, Avinya knew something similar to this would happen. Javariyan royal house and the provinces under it are the most traditional of all the Nihariyan lands. They believe in the superiority of the royals and nobles, they also believe in the myth that the codes give upper classes the right to dominate the lower classes and prohibits the labours and peasants from interpreting and questioning the codes.

Early morning the very next day, Sandhya left Panishcham, the city of Valeth and Avinya, and flew towards Marahim, in her swan form with the platinum ring held in her right claws. Marahim lies around two hundred and fifty miles east of Panishcham.

Of all the royal cities in the Kingdom, Marahim royal house and its provinces are the least traditional and most liberal. The exact opposite to Javariya.

Vihani was alone in her room standing and looking out of her window, both her hands rested on the window frame. As Sandhya neared the palace, Vihani got extremely excited. She didn’t know the cause of it, she didn’t even know what was happening with her. It was the same feeling she had two weeks back, but more extreme. She moved back from the window. She walked backward till she reached the centre of the room, where she stopped moving. She stood there motionless and thoughtless. Then suddenly her body started to shiver, she couldn’t stand anymore. She sat on the floor. She felt extreme happiness. She wanted to scream, but her jaw bone was motionless. She didn’t have the strength to move her mouth. Her shivering increased with time.

Just then, a swan flew straight into her room, through the open window. It flew straight up towards the roof and circled the room thrice. Then before descending it dropped the ring, and flew downwards faster than the falling ring. Right before its legs touched the floor, it turned into a woman. She caught the falling ring with her right hand. Sandhya stood a yard before Vihani. It was night by that time, around two hours past sunset.

When Sandhya fully morphed into a woman, Vihani’s shivering stopped, she regained her strength. At once she jumped up and hugged Sandhya. She kissed Sandhya’s forehead, cheeks and every inch of her face.

At the same time in Panishcham, Valeth and Avinya were in a tight embrace. They were standing on the balcony of Avinya’s room, under the moon lit night. Their eyes looked right into other’s. Their lips were only a tiny fraction of an inch apart.

Then Valeth spoke. “Oh my beloved! Oh sweet one! Oh wonderful one! All these days I didn’t know that you are a goddess. Will you leave me, when you fully discover yourself?”

He wanted to speak more, ask more, but Avinya stopped him. “Shhh, I will always be with you, my dear.” Saying this she kissed his lips, a deep kiss.

Lovers use all their senses to communicate with their beloved, they see, they speak, they smell, they touch, they hold, they kiss, at extreme they even taste. So did Avinya and Valeth, and so did Vihani.

Once Vihani relaxed a bit, Sandhya took Vihani’s right hand and put the ring, on her middle finger. Then Sandhya kissed Vihani’s forehead and moved her right hand fingers through Vihani’s untied hair, from head to waist.

Sandhya spent the next two hours with Vihani. “Where is Javanthi?” asked Sandhya at last.

“Next room, to the left” replied Vihani. Javanthi is Vihani’s sister-in-law, her elder brother prince Norim’s wife. She is the daughter of the king of Varkariya, king Aranth. Marahim royal house is the only one in Nihariya that marries into the royal families of the neighbouring kingdoms. Others marry only within the Nihariyan royality.

Sandhya wanted to meet Javanthi because she is one of the three expert magicians in the kingdom. The other two being Srila and Prince Goridh, son of king Ivanon, of Nihabath. That makes her the ideal person to oppose and compete with Srila both directly and politically.

Javanthi is a master of two branches of magic, namely ether magic and blood alchemy. Ether magic deals with space and time, in all its forms and all the interactions among them. Srila has mastered wave magic. This branch deals with electromagnetic phenomena and sound. Gorith’s mastery is in material magic, which deals with fire, water, air, and organic materials like sugar and alcohol.

Sandhya walked out of Vihani’s room, to the central corridor, the place was more familiar to her, because the corridor had an arched roof which resembled the curved features of the cave, and was more feminine compared to the masculine rectangular architecture of Panishcham.

A palace guard saw Sandhya entering Javanthi’s room, he knew she is neither royal nor noble, because as a guard of the personal chambers of the royal family, he knew all royals and nobles by name and have seen all of them, at least in portraits. It was part of his training.

He also knew that she isn’t a maid, as he knew them all too. Even if she is a new maid or someone else authorised to enter the royal chamber, he would have already been informed by the captain of palace guards. So he assumed that she is an intruder and must be stopped from entering the princess’ room.

He ran towards the door and pulled Sandhya out and pointed his sword at her neck. Such an incident had never happened before, no one has entered this part of the castle without his knowledge. Out of nervousness he brought the sword too close and injured her. A drop of blood flowed along the blade.

Vihani felt something was bad, she came out of her room and looked around. She saw the guard pointing the sword at Sandhya, then she saw blood, both on the sword and Sandhya’s neck. She ran towards the guard and screamed at him. “How dare you injure a goddess!”

Sandhya calmed her. Hearing Vihani’s voice Javanthi came out of her room. As a magician on seeing Sandhya she knew there is something special about her. “Come in” she invited them into her room and walked into her room. Vihani followed her. Sandhya looked at the guard, he was clueless. She got hold of his right hand and pulled him in with her, once in, she closed the door.

Vihani and Sandhya explained everything to Javanthi. Then Sandhya turned her focus to the guard and said. “My blood on your sword is permanent, use another sword instead of this one, you will need this in future.

Then Sandhya spoke to the ladies. “I should leave now, I must give the rings to the other girls before the union of sun and moon.

“Union of sun and moon?” Vihani asked with confusion.
“Javanthi, why don’t you explain her.” Sandhya told Javanthi, then took her swan form and flew out of her room.